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The Streets of New York

The streets of New York — with their clamor, hustle and snap — are
captured in an exhibition of photographs in Washington, D.C. At the National
Gallery of Art, black-and-white pictures by Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Helen
Levitt and others, taken from 1938 through 1958, show a raw, edgy city.

New York was a magnet for photographers — especially after World War II.
National Gallery curator Sarah Greenough says the crowded streets were full of
opportunity.

But they were lonely, too. In Louis Stettner’s 1952 picture, "Times
Square," steam billows from a manhole as someone — you can only see his feet
and the bottom of his overcoat — strolls past in the night.

"It’s a completely anonymous form, but in that way really does express that
sense of anonymity, the isolation of the urban environment," Greenough says
.NPR